Anna, Lady Barlow

The Honourable Anna Maria Heywood, Lady Barlow (1873 – 28 May 1965) was an English welfare reformer and Liberal Party politician.

In 1895 she married John Emmott Barlow, the Liberal MP for Frome in Somerset and senior partner in his family businesses with principal interests in textiles, tea and coffee and rubber.

Overall only forty-one women were chosen to stand for election and Lady Barlow was one of only six female candidates out of a total of 333 Liberal hopefuls.

[9] A champion of the political rights of women, Lady Barlow was also a strong supporter of the traditional Liberal policy of free trade[1] and shared her husband's close interest in labour affairs.

For 22 years she was President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Band of Hope Union an organisation dedicated to teaching and impressing upon children the importance and principles of sobriety and teetotalism.

She and her husband opposed the introduction of conscription both before [14] and more crucially during the First World War and sent their sons to a Quaker college in the United States.